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In a world filled with sadness and loss, how we do cope? At its core, Mission: Yozakura Family (MYF) is about answering this in a simplistic way that all ages can understand. It may not be a ground-breaking answer, but sometimes simplicity makes for the most effective reminders. Happiness is found through accepting absurdity and opening your heart to others.

I haven't consistently updated my MAL in years, but I've never anticipated an anime more prior to its release than this series right here. So, I'd like to give my review from the perspective of a long-time source material reader.

Many protagonists of Weekly Shonen Jump manga ... (and their anime adaptations) share overlapping traits. Taiyo Asano is no exception, but his introduction is effective. The anime opens with a flashback and a monologue that instantly explains what he's about. He's an anxious, traumatized teenager who's scared of losing people he loves. The theme of loss can be interpreted in all sorts of ways with many people. It's not just Taiyo either. The series reveals early on that the titular Yozakura family have also experienced loss. Most notably, in my opinion, is Kyoichiro Yozakura.

Kyoichiro is introduced as an off-putting, antagonistic force. He's instantly juxtaposed with Taiyo. In the first episode, while Taiyo is the "good-guy" and Kyoichiro is the "bad-guy," Taiyo realizes that both of them are victims of loss who have developed unhealthy coping mechanisms and altered personalities. With Taiyo, it's his extreme social anxiety. With Kyoichiro, it's his extreme obsession with his sister (while his obsession with Mutsumi Yozakura becomes an ongoing gag, the character writing is taken seriously enough to not let him be portrayed as an incestuous predator). Taiyo's journey begins when his desire to protect who he loves overpowers his fear of loss. As a result, he influences and inspires the entire family to overcome their own loss.

Mission: Yozakura Family is less about romantic love and more about familiar love and a general appreciation of mundane moments of joy that we often take for granted until they can no longer be replicated. There's a large focus on humorous interactions amongst each other and the illogical circumstance about this series' world of spies. The spy element of the series is used as a joke more than anything. Very little about the way the Yozakura and other spies work make sense. Whether or not this is funny will vary from person to person, but it doesn't harm the series' writing as the absurdity and chaos of life (both good and bad) are things we have to accept. Taiyo and Mutsumi's relationship is cute to watch, but it lacks any real drama or significant development simply because it's not the driving force of the story.

The story is a slow-building mystery of discovering what caused the hardships of Taiyo and the Yozakura family and then fighting to prevent further loss from occurring. This element of MYF is really fun to watch, but it's also where the anime adaptation fumbles the most. The production planning for the anime was reportedly great, and anyone with knowledgeable of the recent works of animation studio SILVER LINK could tell you that the quality of the anime's 27 episode run was surprisingly well. However, doing surprisingly well when expectations were disastrous doesn't exactly cut it for many anime fans seeking high-quality art and animation. Aside from the notably talented voice cast and, MYF's quality is quite average which can be a turn-off for many seasoned anime fans.

Another struggle the anime adaptation faced was pacing. The staff clearly wanted to adapt an ambitiously large amount of content in a single two-cour season. There are ways to adapt large amounts of content within a limited episode count that can come across as lazy. With MYF, that clearly wasn't the case. They managed to get an extra episode more than the standard 26 and they added some additional content that fixed some of the biggest criticisms of the manga. However, they had to remove fan favorite scenes in order to reach the end point. Many of these involve episodic plots and characters who only received small cameos and references in the anime that can easily be repurposed for the confirmed second season. However, the Skeleton Island arc particularly suffered from cut lines and shortened backstories that won't be coming back. While the decision to cover as much content as they did to tell a satisfying story in a single season is highly respectable, it wasn't without its drawbacks.

Overall, this anime can be a really fun time for anyone who enjoys light-hearted excitement or anyone struggling with grief and loneliness. Even the power-ups introduced in the second half of the season reflect each character's individual coping mechanisms in really creative ways. However, I'd recommend it alongside the manga rather than as a substitute. Both versions have their pros and cons, but together they make up what is my personal favorite fictional story of all time. The second season is in production as of the writing of this review, and let me assure you that things will keep getting better from here.